Open AccessThe British financial revolution and the empire of credit in St. Kitts and Nevis, 1706–21
Author(s) -
Graham Aaron
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
historical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.203
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1468-2281
pISSN - 0950-3471
DOI - 10.1111/1468-2281.12244
Subject(s) - metropolitan area , empire , colonialism , government (linguistics) , phenomenon , economic history , british empire , industrial revolution , history , business , economics , political science , ancient history , law , archaeology , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics
The British ‘financial revolution’ was a colonial as well as a metropolitan phenomenon. Yet the structures used by colonists to participate in it have rarely been studied in their own right. A close examination of the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, which received almost £ 100,000 in government debentures between 1706 and 1721, confirms that they used the same types of networks and agents as their counterparts in Britain and Ireland to overcome the problems of distance and to manage their investments. In functional terms, the new ‘empire of credit’ was therefore merely an extension of the British financial revolution.